If you hunt deer and other animals for their meat, why not use their skins too? Treating the leather with a tanning process ensures that you eventually get a supple leather finish that can be used to make shoes and clothes or hang on walls. Keep reading to learn about two methods of tanning leather: the traditional method which requires using the animal's own natural brain oil and the faster chemical method.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Tanning Skin Using Animal Brain Oil
Step 1. Skin the animal
Skinning is the process of scraping the flesh and fat from the skin, which prevents the skin from rotting. Place the peel on a skinning block (a block specially designed to keep the leather in place while you work the skin) or on a tarp on the ground. Use a skin knife to scrape away any visible remnants of meat and fat in quick, firm strokes.
- Skin the animal immediately after cutting the skin from the animal's body. If you wait more than a few hours, the skin will start to rot, and will crumble when you tan.
- Be careful not to break the skin when you scrape it. Do not use a knife that is not a skin knife, as a knife other than a skin knife can puncture or scratch the skin.
Step 2. Wash the skin
Use clean water and soap made from natural ingredients to remove dust, blood, and other debris before you begin to soften the skin.
Step 3. Dry the skin
Allow the leather to dry for a few days so that it is ready to be tanned. Make holes along the edge of the leather and use the string to attach it to the drying rack. These wooden shelves, which can be purchased at hunting supply stores, keep the leather in place while the leather dries completely.
- Make sure the leather is completely stretched, not just hanging, on the drying rack. The more the skin is stretched, the bigger the final result when it's finished tanning.
- If you spread your skin on a wall or barn, make sure there is enough room for air to circulate between the skin and the wall. Otherwise, the skin will not dry properly.
- The drying process can take up to a week, depending on the climate in your area.
Step 4. Remove the hairs from the skin
Remove the leather from the dryer and use a hand held circular blade steel knife or a horned deerskin scraper to remove any hairs on the leather. This is to ensure that the tanning solution can completely wet the skin. Carefully scrape the hair and epidermis from the skin.
- If the hair is long, trim it first. Scrape the hair spots, and scrape away from you.
- Be careful on the belly, because the skin here is thinner than the rest of the skin.
Step 5. Use animal brain on the skin
The oil in animal brains provides a natural tanning method, and each animal has a brain large enough to tan its own skin entirely. Boil animal brains in 236 ml of water until the brains decompose and the mixture resembles soup. Blend until smooth. Perform the following steps to apply animal brain to skin:
- Wash the skin with water. It removes residual grease and dirt and makes the skin softer, so it can better absorb brain oil.
- Squeeze the skin, so the skin can absorb the oil later. Squeeze out excess water by placing the skin between two towels and squeezing it, then repeat the process using two dry towels.
- Apply the brain mixture on the skin so that it is absorbed into the skin. Make sure you cover the entire surface of the skin.
- Roll up the skin and store in a large plastic bag or large food storage bag. Store in the refrigerator to allow the brain oil to be absorbed into the skin for at least 24 hours.
Step 6. Soften the skin
Now that the oil has been absorbed into the skin, the skin is ready to be softened. Remove the skin from the refrigerator and place it back on the drying rack. Clean the brain mixture as much as possible. Use a heavy stick or leather softener to soften the skin by running the tool repeatedly along the skin.
- You can also enlist the help of a colleague to help you stretch and soften the leather by lowering the leather from the drying rack and pulling the edges of the leather from both sides. Keep doing this until you are both tired, then place the leather back on the drying rack and use the leather softener to continue working the leather.
- Heavy straps can also be used to soften the skin. Ask a partner to hold one end of the rope and work together to rub it against the skin.
Step 7. Smoke the skin
When the skin has become soft, supple, and dry, the skin is ready to be smoked. Sew the holes in the leather, and sew the sides of the leather to make a pocket. Seal one edge so it's tight enough to hold the smoke. Place the leather pouch over the hole that is approximately 30 cm wide and 15 cm deep. Use a stick to make a rough frame to hold the leather pouch open, and tie the closed edge to the tree or use another long stick to hold it in place. Make a small fire and smoke in the bag to smoke the skin.
- As soon as a small fire has lit on the charcoal layer, start adding the pieces of smoked wood to the fire and attach the skin around the hole. A small passage on one side will allow you to keep the fire burning.
- After smoking one side of the skin for half an hour, turn the inside of the bag out and smoke the other side.
Method 2 of 2: Tanning Leather Using Chemicals
Step 1. Skin the animal
Skinning is the process of scraping the flesh and fat from the skin, which prevents the skin from rotting. Place the peel on a skinning block (a block specially designed to keep the leather in place while you work the skin) or on a tarp on the ground. Use a skin knife to scrape away any visible remnants of meat and fat in quick, firm strokes.
- Skin the animal immediately after cutting the skin from the animal's body. If you wait more than a few hours, the skin will start to rot, and will crumble when you tan.
- Be careful not to break the skin when you scrape it. Do not use a knife that is not a skin knife, as a knife other than a skin knife can puncture or scratch the skin.
Step 2. Salt the skin
After peeling, immediately spread the skin in the shade on a tarp and coat with 1.5 - 2.5 kg of salt. Make sure the skin is completely coated in salt.
- For the next two weeks, continue to salt the skin until the skin becomes dry.
- If you notice a pool of fluid oozing from one area of the skin, coat the area with more salt.
Step 3. Prepare the tanning equipment
Tanning solutions are made from various combinations of household ingredients and chemicals that you need to get from elsewhere. Prepare the following materials:
- 7, 6 L of water
- 5.6 L of bran flakes water (Make this by boiling 5.6 L of water and pouring it over 0.5 kg of bran flakes. Let this mixture sit for an hour, then strain and save the water.)
- 2 kg salt (without iodine)
- 296 ml battery acid
- 1 box of baking soda
- 2 big trash cans
- 1 large stick, for stirring and transferring the skins
Step 4. Tanning the skin
Start by soaking the leather in clean water until it is soft and supple, so the leather will absorb the tanning solution more easily. When the skin is ready to be tanned, peel off the dry inner skin. Then, perform the following steps to tan the leather:
- Put the salt in the trash and pour 7.6 L of boiling water into it. Add the bran flakes water and stir until the salt is completely dissolved.
- Add battery acid. Make sure you wear gloves and other precautions to prevent injury from exposure to battery acid.
- Place the skin in the trash, pushing it down with a stick to make sure the skin is completely submerged in the solution. Let it soak for 40 minutes.
Step 5. Wash the skin
Fill the second trash can with clean water while waiting for the leather to soak in the tanning solution. After 40 minutes have elapsed, use a stick to remove the leather from the tanner and transfer it to clean water. Stir the leather to wash the tanner solution off the leather. When the water looks dirty, drain the water, refill it with clean water, and wash the skin for 5 minutes.
- If you plan to make clothes from this leather, add a box of baking soda to the water to neutralize any remaining acid. This will prevent the acid from hurting people's skin.
- If you don't plan on making clothes out of this leather, you don't need to add a box of baking soda, as neutralizing the acid also reduces the acid's effectiveness in preserving leather.
Step 6. Discard the water and oil the skin
Remove the skin from the water and hang it on a block to dry. Apply neatsfoot oil to smooth the skin.
Step 7. Spread the skin
Hang the leather on a stretcher or leather dryer to complete the tanning process. Place in the sun to dry.
- After a few days, the skin should feel dry and supple. Remove from the rack and brush the leather side with a wire brush until it looks soft and smooth.
- Allow the skin to dry completely until it is completely dry. This usually takes a few days.
Tips
- If you add wood ashes from a campfire to the water while the leather is soaking, the leather hairs can come off very easily. This wood ash turns water into a dilute alkaline solution.
- White pine smoke tends to blacken the bark.
- The dried corncobs smoke very well and turn the skin yellow.
Warning
- While smoking the skin, stay there and watch the fire.
- You have to be very careful when scraping and stretching the skin. Scrape away from you. Scrapers and stretchers aren't sharp, but because you apply pressure, they can hurt you if you slip your hand.
- Always wear gloves and protective gloves when handling battery acid, as this acid is corrosive and can burn your skin and eyes.
